[Travel] Ipoh - Zichar 煮炒 at Sun Tuck Kee 新德记

What other things to eat in Ipoh besides the famed beansprouts chicken, ipoh gai see hor fun or dim sums? Well, we went to check out their zichar and the only place with some hope for a seat (it was drizzling that night) was Sun Tuck Kee. Everyone else seemed too crowded. The photo of the shopfront below was taken on another day when they were less crowded.

restaurant facade

Waited for about 15 minutes before we got a table and another 15 minutes before anyone came to take order. Yes, they were super busy and my dad was getting grumpier by the minute.

menu

Ordered three noodles as mains and 3 side dishes. There's baby octopus that's pretty chewy and good with the chili dip otherwise, not much taste. The braised chicken feet was good and falls off the bones but skinny. Meatballs soup were good. These took forever to come actually.

side dishes of boiled baby octopus (@RM17), chicken feet (@RM7) and meatballs soup (@RM1.10 per piece)

We were still hungry by the time the noodles came.

Hokkien Noodles @RM17

Fried Tang Hoon @RM13

The Hokkien noodles were well fried and tasty but the sambal was a letdown. Fried Tang Hoon was surprisingly good and one of the better dish that night. Awesome flavour for this rustic looking dish.

Next, was the wat dan hor which warranted a double-take. Why? Because it's the first time I'm seeing this dish served in a large soup bowl. I was like, did we order soup? Hahahaa, the noodles were all drowning in the gravy!

滑蛋河 Ipoh style

yes, correct.. this is 滑蛋河

Actually, the wat dan hor was nice. The hot gravy was flavourful and tasty (from msg maybe?) and made it more satisfying for us who were really hungry at that time.

where has all the gravy gone to?

Overall, the food is good and reasonably priced.

Sun Tuck Kee 新德记

Address: 65, Jalan Yau Tet Shin, Pusat Bandaraya Ipoh 30300
Contact: +60 12 514 2228
Business Hours:
Daily:12:00pm - 03:30am

[Travel] Ipoh - 玉福满点心楼 Yoke Fook Moon Dim Sum Restaurant

Tried this restaurant that's nearby Foh San. Walk-able distance from Ipoh Downtown Hotel. Went there seven early eight early (七早八早) at about 8.30am and the place was rather quiet with just a few tables taken. First impression was that the restaurant had a slightly stale musty smell.

entrance

interior

Its interior was well-kept and has clean bathroom too. Service staff are probably in their late thirties and some even older.

There are signs everywhere that informed customers to top-up their own hot water (for the tea) but since they are not busy, the service staff did it for us. They were rather friendly too. Near the cashier counter, they have a dedicated space for take-outs.

menu

takeaway counter

To order, you could inform the staff whatever that you'd be interested in having, or have them bring out the trays of goodies for you to choose at the table. Not trolley service but close. Having dim sum should have these kind of feels. The price range for the dim sum is between RM2.70 to RM11.30 (~SGD0.95 to SGD3.90). For tourists, the prices are pretty reasonable.

order chit

Ordered up a pot of "bou-lei tea" which is pu-erh tea (普洱茶) in Cantonese.

drink tea, eat dim sum

Let's see what we had for breakfast that fed a party of 7-pax. Started with the usual orders of har gao (蝦餃) and siew mai (烧卖), of course.

siew mai, har gao and more

siew mai (烧卖) close-up view

芋角 woo kok (fried taro puff) 

fish balls, chicken feet, beancurd skin and cheong fun

Another must order for us, is the porridge. They have century egg porridge with peanuts and it was gooey and tasty. 

yummy porridge

Hence, we ordered up a steamed pork bun (大包). Whoa, we were impressed by its size when it was brought out. It's like 4 to 5 times the size of the big bao version that we get in SG. Wow! Not only that it was big in size, it was also big in flavour too! Moist, loaded with well marinated meat of pork and chicken, shitake mushroom and that quintessential hard boil egg. Oh, did I mention that the bao skin was fluffy with slight chewiness too? Yums!

look at the size!

大包 that's bigger than my hand @RM10.20

loaded with pork slices, chicken, mushroom and hard boiled egg

Also ordered their special item, which is the fish paste noodles in pepper soup. No idea what it was but it is priced at RM11.30 for an individual portion.

'fish noodles' soup @RM11.30

The noodles are made of fish paste, so essentially we are chomping down on fish paste noodles. The soup has a peppery taste to it and loaded with pig's stomach. Nice tummy warmer on a cold morning.

Overall, we enjoyed the food and service from Yoke Fook Moon. Must order the big bao!

Yoke Fook Moon 玉福满

Address: 65-69, Jalan Leong Sin Nam, 30300 Ipoh, Negeri Perak, Malaysia

Contact: +60 5-241 6589

Business Hours:

Daily: 6am–1:30pm, 6:30–10pm

Exploring Ipoh at a Relaxed Pace - Kajang to Ipoh | Ipoh Downtown Hotel | Hua Nam Coffeeshop

Was my first time in Ipoh and my sis booked us a room at Ipoh Downtown Hotel. We travelled from Kajang to Ipoh Station via ETS train. Journey was about 3.5 hours from Kajang Station. Think it was less than SGD30 for a return ticket.

arrived - Ipoh Train Station

ETS Route

Reached Ipoh Station at about 1pm. The station was constructed in 1894 and it has a nice exterior painted in white. From there, one could take a taxi or Grab to downtown. If you intend to get Grab, most of the grab cars are not that big and could possibly fit at most 2 luggages of 23-24" in its boot. We had 7 adults with us, thus it took us 3 vehicles to transport all of us and our bags to the hotel.

Ipoh Train Station

It was just a 10 minutes ride from the train station to Ipoh Downtown Hotel. This hotel is located near "Tong Shui Kai" (糖水街) or also known as "Dessert Street".

Ipoh Downtown Hotel

hotel sign

hotel lobby

We were given rooms at Level 5. There's a small sundry shop at the hotel lobby where you could get instant noodles, chips, bread, or ice-cream but with a higher than market price. Good for rainy days where you don't want to walk out but there's a convenience store just a few steps away from the hotel.

hotel room with 2 double beds

view from room

minibar with complimentary drinks

instant coffee

complimentary bottled water

bathroom

bathroom supplies

After checking-in, it was about way past lunch time so we decided to try the nearby coffeeshop. We went to Hua Nam Coffeeshop.

Hua Nam @ Jalan Leong Sin Nam

fried noodles stall

char kway teow  with cockles @RM5.50

cockles 螄蚶

The char kway teow was good. Savoury, well-fried and had a hint of wok-hei. The cockles (seahum) was of a decent size. On another day, I tried their "Kap Dai" (及底) noodles and it was essentially just fried noodles. Preferred the char kway teow over that anytime!

Kap Dai" (及底) @RM6

Also tried the curry mee but think there was a mis-commucation. Ordered a bowl with additional roast pork, and when it came, there was no other ingredients in the bowl except roast pork! Hahaa.

roast pork curry mee @RM6

roast pork curry noodles

My dad ordered the "lam mee" (淋面) from the Penang Noodles stall. Hmm, no particular liking for this dish as I still prefer the lor mee back in Singapore.

Lam Mee (淋面)

The iced coffee from this coffeeshop is pretty good. Not too acidic, strong coffee and milk that's not too overpowering. They also have a plum drink which they soak the plum in a large container to steep out the flavours.

iced coffee

housemade preserved plum drink @RM2.60

Also tried fruits rojak at the coffeeshop, and it was good too. Just that the turnip slices was a tad tough. Other than that, the rest were ok. Tasty.

rojak

The caramel custard from the coffeeshop was not bad but it wasn't made in-house. They got it via a supplier. First one that I had, it disintegrated rather quickly as the custard had not solidify enough. Informed the lady-boss and she changed another one for me.

caramel egg custard

Kedai Minuman & Makanan Hua Nam 華南白咖啡茶室

Address: 45, Jalan Leong Sin Nam, Kampung Jawa, 30300 Ipoh, Negeri Perak, Malaysia